Kontera, Performancing Ads, And TTZ

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Nov 3, 2008

This evening, I figured it was time to add to my affiliate branding, so to speak. I pretty much decided to do it after visiting John Chow’s page where he’s talking about his October Blogging Income of over $34,000. At that point, I said to myself “Self, quit buggin’ and get on the affiliate marketing bandwagon.” Not that I haven’t done a few things, but hey, I want to move up in the world.

So, I went to the link he suggested, affiliates he’s pimping, and decided on three of them for the night. I actually looked at all of the ones he had on the page except Text Link Ads, since I already knew about them. The three I decided on were Kontera, Performancing Ads, and TTZ Media.

I’m not overly sure why I chose those, but I did. Both Performancing Ads and TTZ allow you to set up 125×125 ads on your sidebar, and Performancing Ads also has an affiliate program, which you’ll notice over there on the side. Kontera, I believe, will add links into your content at some point that highlights whatever their advertisers select, and it’s PPC (pay per click, which means you earn money if someone clicks on the link). You also get to alter the settings some, so once Kontera begins, there won’t be any links on my main page, only within each post, and the links will begin after one day has passed. I wanted a little bit of time in there, although statistics show that you get most of your visitors within the first 24 hours. But you can always go back and change it.

Also, both Kontera and Performancing Ads have WordPress plugins, which makes things easier to deal with. I have no idea what TTZ does, because they take time to approve you. Oh yeah; Kontera actually has a minimum number of page views that your site is supposed to hit every month, but if you sign up under John Chow they waive that, so my recommendation is to first visit the link I sent you, then follow the link he gives you in his post to where you can then sign up under him. Sure, he’ll be getting some residual income from you, but if you end up making a few dollars who cares, right?

For the record, there were a couple others I looked at and thought about. Azoogle is like Google ads, and I decided I already have Google so why double dip. I tried to visit DealDotCom but their site is down for maintenance. I thought about Pepperjam, and that’s one I might go back to at another time. I knew I didn’t want to deal with paid reviews, as I like to write about whatever I want to write about, so that knocked out ReviewMe. And one other, OIOpublisher Direct, you have to pay for the plugin; not for me at this time.

So, there you go. Now, what I did to kind of replace something on the right side was to remove the Google bar that was on that side. I’m thinking about experimenting with one of the many WP plugins that will put an Adsense block within one’s post. But I’m only thinking about it at this juncture; if I couldn’t pick and choose, then it would look pretty silly in short posts, and I do have short ones from time to time.

Onward and upward!

Tags: affiliate companies, affiliate marketing, Kontera, Pperformancing Ads, TTZ Media

40 Comments »

Sire:

Man, I’ve been pimping Kontera for yonks. I can’t believe you didn’t pick up on it, and that you had to hear it from Chow no less. It’s almost like I am wasting my time by blogging about these thing lol

Performancing ads huh? May have to look into that one.

Sire´s last blog post..The Real Dos And Don’t Of Affiliate Marketing

Mitch Reply:
November 3rd, 2008 at 11:45 PM

I didn’t know that; I can’t recall your talking about it before. And at some point I still have to go look at Chitika.

November 3rd, 2008 | 11:40 PM

Wei Liang | ABloggerBlog:

Wow Mitch. Looks like you introduce quite a bit of programs to monetize blogs. I have not heard about TTZ media as well and I guess I go check it out.

Kontera is a great program to make some cash and I got quite good results from them as well. Definitely recommend you to use this as well.

Wei Liang

Wei Liang | ABloggerBlog´s last blog post..Lesson 16: Comment Marketing

Mitch Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 9:37 AM

Thanks Wei. I had been holding back, worried that I couldn’t track everyone well, but tracking and measuring is what I’m all about, so I decided to plunge a little bit deeper into it all. The readers will certainly find out from me how any of it ends up working.

Wei Liang | ABloggerBlog Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 6:09 PM

I believe you could Mitch. You are very organized in your work and I do think they you make use of your time very well. I will be looking forward to your review on the programs then.

Wei Liang

Wei Liang | ABloggerBlog´s last blog post..Lesson 16: Comment Marketing

Mitch Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 6:31 PM

Thanks Wei; stay tuned.

November 4th, 2008 | 3:47 AM

Ajith Edassery:

Mitch,
I was an ardent fan of John Chow until all those he referred found useless for upcoming bloggers. I had written detailed reviews on each of those programs with great passion (links below, if you allow them) only to find that none of them were useful. PerformancingAds is yielding some bucks for me now, more from affiliation than ad boxes.

Links:
http://www.dollarshower.com/kontera-contentlink/
http://www.dollarshower.com/ttz-media-ad-program-with-a-difference/
http://www.dollarshower.com/make-money-from-your-blog-%e2%80%93-performancingads-review/

I shall talk about my experiences and you decide:
- Most of John Chow’s recommendations (may be except AdSense, Bidvertiser) are not suitable for upcoming blogs. He puts lins that yields maximum referral revenue for himself
- Kontera is very disturbing for users and it kind of tricks users to click. In any case, the earnings per click is hadly 4-6 cents.
- ReviewMe… ah, they never approve upcoming blogs. Even if they do, only those biggies get paid well per review. Worth thing, MediaWhiz (parent company) takes 50% cut and that’s crazy! I somehow liked sponsoredreviews better.
- TTZ media, John Chow himself doesn’t make much out of it… I tried it for three months, it was pathetic then. No proper auditing etc and not really attracting much clicks. A lot of script errors as well.
- PerformancingAds: currently doing OK for me, not exceptional
- TextLinkAds should work for you once you have a blog with PR3 or 4 (and above) with great traffic. They pay reasonably well. But in the next round of PR updates you may end up with 2 or 1 and after that the advertisers will dump you unless your traffic is extremely high.

Hope this experience of mine helps…

Cheers,
Ajith

November 4th, 2008 | 4:38 AM

Ajith Edassery:

And about things that WILL work:

1.Google AdSense
2.AdSense ads for feed
3.Private ad sales
4.Affilaite schemes
5.Paid Reviews
6.Paid links/blogroll

Mitch Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 9:41 AM

Thanks for the review, Ajith. I figure a couple of things. One, of course John Chow would talk about what makes him money; I have no problem with that. Two, I really hadn’t heard of many of these before seeing them on his, and I figure it can’t hurt to try. And if I don’t make much money from them, well, it’s not like I’m making much from the other stuff here now, so any little increase is a step up, and I can always get rid of anything that doesn’t work.

Out of the stuff you said works, I just don’t see paid reviews in my immediate future, and I’m not sure I’d want to say affiliate “schemes”; I’m not quite sure what you mean by that one.

November 4th, 2008 | 4:49 AM

Rodney Smith:

I’ve been running PerformancingAds on a couple of blogs for the last few weeks, and have had a few bookings. Tip: if you’re not getting any interest from advertisers, try lowering your price for a while – you can always push it up again later once you’ve filled a few slots. PA has been getting quite a bit of negative press, but I hope it manages to sort out its issues, cos I rather like the concept.

Rodney Smith´s last blog post..WordPress Roles and Capabilities

Mitch Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 5:25 PM

Figures Rodney, I haven’t heard of any of the bad press from them. Hey, the rate I selected is pretty low, and at best I’ll only make $10 a month from them if all the slots fill up. It’s nickels and dimes, but it all adds up. The best thing, though, is that I can put the PA ads on other sites, not just the blog; at least the affiliate stuff.

Rodney Smith Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 5:37 PM

Well, that’s advice straight from the John Chow school of blogging. He talks a lot about using multiple methods of advertising to push up your effective CPM – in one of his posts there’s a nice graph of how his earnings have increased over time while his traffic level has stayed fairly static. Recently I heard him say he earns something like $110 per thousand pageviews!

Rodney Smith´s last blog post..WordPress Roles and Capabilities

Mitch Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 6:29 PM

Well, let’s see how that all works out for me. It’s interesting how one decides to count page views, though. The numbers I get from 1&1 are drastically different than what I get from Google Analytics. But either way, I’ll take better numbers across the board.

November 4th, 2008 | 4:50 PM

Work At Home Ideas:

Hi Mitch,
I’ve also had some success with PA but I remember them for 2 things: 1. they take huge cuts as much as 50%(OIO gives you 100%) and 2. they don’t answer your queries. God knows why they put up a contact form. That said, I’m still happy with some loose change from PA.

-Peter Lee

Work At Home Ideas´s last blog post..How Blog Commenting Got Me 1200 Backlinks in 5 Days

Mitch Reply:
November 4th, 2008 at 6:30 PM

I guess I don’t mind the cut they take, Peter, as long as I get my cut. But customer service could be an issue if I end up having any problems. It’s one reason I dropped ICQ; you couldn’t contact them.

November 4th, 2008 | 5:57 PM

Dennis Edell:

I’m not sure who thought up the idea that Chow don’t make much from TTZ Media…..he owns it.

I’ve heard great things about PA but Kontera is just super annoying to readers…depending on the amount of links; and their even in comments.

I look forward o earning reports though

Dennis Edell´s last blog post..Do You Have Good Follow-Through?

Mitch Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 9:58 AM

I decided not to have links in comments, and I set it so that the first day of my post won’t have the links. So, if you like what I write, come early.

Dennis Edell Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 12:26 PM

LOL I’ll try, but I usually wait for the feed email.

Good to know about the comments…it also tells me who’s being a bit greedy regardless of reader annoyance.

Dennis Edell´s last blog post..100 RSS Subscribers – It’s Happy Dance Time!

Mitch Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 12:30 PM

Cool; I’m thinking about adding something else, but it requires more thinking.

November 5th, 2008 | 7:55 AM

Rob Malon:

Performancing Ads is worthless from a publishers perspective. To be notice you need to selling yourself short.

There is an alternative using a new plugin: MyAdManager. I included it in my monthly “hot” plugins list for wordpress: http://robmalon.com/9-new-popular-wordpress-plugins-in-october-2008/

Mitch Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 9:59 AM

I’ll have to take a look at some point, Rob. We’re usually checking out all sorts of things, especially WP plugins.

Rodney Smith Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 4:01 PM

@Rob – that plugin sounds worth a look. In my opinion though, the benefit of systems like PA is the network of advertisers they provide.

Rodney Smith´s last blog post..WordPress Roles and Capabilities

Mitch Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 5:59 PM

By the way, you have some other great plugins I think I’m going to try.

November 5th, 2008 | 9:51 AM

John Lessnau:

The key to be the next Jon Chow is to create a blog that drives massive traffic. He can slap up just about any ad and make money. On those 125x125s, they aren’t affiliate ads they are paid banners. I believe he charges about $400 a month for those banners.

He can get away with this because of his huge following. While you struggle to be found and known, try to sell some contextual HTML links in your posts with LinkXL.com

You don’t need to rely and clicks or traffic to get paid as all LinkXL links are paid monthly so this is advantageous for a low traffic blog.

John Lessnau´s last blog post..Twitter Tweets about Twitter Marketing as of November 5, 2008

Mitch Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 5:50 PM

I probably will take a look at it, but I think I need to see what Kontera is going to do first, or can we run both programs at the same time?

November 5th, 2008 | 2:21 PM

John Lessnau:

Both Kontera and LinkXL run together fine. They are both contextual links but totally different concepts so one will not mess with the earnings of the other.

John Lessnau´s last blog post..Twitter Tweets about gallup as of November 5, 2008

Mitch Reply:
November 5th, 2008 at 6:17 PM

I’ll say this, John; you certainly have learned how to pimp your product. lol

November 5th, 2008 | 6:05 PM

John Lessnau:

It’ all about getting the word out.

LinkXL is something I have worked on for two years as I have seen the text link market shifting. I am very involved in text link advertising (Google my name) and Text Links in Content is where I strongly believe things are going.

— steps off soapbox….

John Lessnau´s last blog post..Twitter Tweets about gallup as of November 5, 2008

November 5th, 2008 | 6:32 PM

Vered:

Hi Mitch,

My name is Vered and I’m from Kontera.

Thanks for this great review and welcome to our network.

I wanted to mention that we had removed the minimum pageviews requirement a while ago. Any site, big or small, containing textual content, is welcome to join Kontera’s network .

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any other Kontera related questions, comments or concerns.

Vered Avrahami
Publisher Services Manager
Kontera.com

Mitch Reply:
November 6th, 2008 at 12:41 PM

Hi Vered; thanks for sharing that information. Someone should tell John Chow to update his recommendations page. And thanks for the welcome.

November 6th, 2008 | 12:17 PM

Dwight Zahringer:

Vered,

Great blog- I’ve been following your progress for a bit. You really need to try out LinkXL on this blog and see the potential it can bring you.

Mitch Reply:
November 7th, 2008 at 10:13 AM

You must have missed that post, because I added it on the 6th and wrote about it.

November 7th, 2008 | 7:57 AM

Lee:

I used to do well with Kontera but found a lot of their ads were just for dictionary searches rather than anything specific.

Anyone else find that?

Mitch Reply:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:00 PM

Thanks for your comment, Lee. Heck, I just want to see something one of these days so I can see what it looks like. lol

November 15th, 2008 | 7:51 PM

Lee:

I just slapped it back on one of my sites to see how it goes. I blended the colours so it’s not too obtrusive.

Lee´s last blog post..The Step Pyramid Of Djoser

Mitch Reply:
November 15th, 2008 at 8:36 PM

Good move. I don’t want them to be too obtrusive either, but I won’t know what they are until I at least have one show up.

November 15th, 2008 | 8:06 PM

Lee:

They’re not appearing on all my pages for some reason.. have you had a good look in your archives to see if you have any live ones in there??

Lee´s last blog post..The Step Pyramid Of Djoser

Mitch Reply:
November 16th, 2008 at 1:19 PM

I’ve looked through them, but truthfully, “good” look is subjective, in that I’m not quite sure what I’m looking for. I assume I’m looking for links on some of the words, and those links should be somewhat visible, right? If that’s the case, then nothing has stood out thus far.

November 16th, 2008 | 12:35 PM

Lee:

Yeah, the words should be underlined in blue by default.

Have you emailed Kontera support about it?

Lee´s last blog post..The Step Pyramid Of Djoser

Mitch Reply:
November 16th, 2008 at 1:37 PM

No, I haven’t written them, or LinkXL, which are both supposed to do relatively the same thing. I figure I can wait for it, since it’s not costing me anything.

November 16th, 2008 | 1:27 PM

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